


Requiem

by Leira



Category: Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (TV), Nancy Drew (Video Games), Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene, Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Super Mysteries - Franklin W. Dixon & Carolyn Keene
Genre: Gen, Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-25 03:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12026796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leira/pseuds/Leira
Summary: The process of grief is never a straight line. With the loss of Kate Drew, her friends and family have to find a way to move on, however they can.





	1. Laura

Kate was a breath of fresh air. Out of all of Laura’s friends, she had always been the optimist, always looking for a positive in every solution. Laura had always struggled a bit more with that bit. She wasn’t unhappy, but she knew that there wasn’t always a positive. Especially now. With Kate gone, where was any possible hope of a silver lining?  
  
Fenton was at a loss for words and Laura longed for the days when it had been easier to leave home behind and escape her thoughts for a bit at some bar. The thought had passed through her mind a few times, but all it took was one look at her two perfect boys and she knew that running was not the answer. And it was not what Kate would have done. Maybe she owed it to her best friend to stay when things got hard. She owed it to her to look out for Carson at the very least.  
  
The man was crumbling to pieces before her very eyes. She had never thought Carson would be one to lose himself in drink, but it seemed like more often than not when she went to see him now, she would find him in his office, slumped over his desk, empty drink left on the pages strewn all about. Thank goodness for Hannah, who had taken it upon herself to see that little Nancy didn’t have to see her father like that. Still, Laura couldn’t help the twinge of anger in her gut – how dare he disrespect what Kate would have wanted for him? She didn’t want to be strong either, but here she was. After a few visits, the pain and anger at seeing her friend like that grew to be too much. That was the last time she visited.  
  
Frank was easy to dress for the funeral. He stood there quietly as she adjusted his tie and she felt his eyes on her, asking the silent question of it would really all be okay. Laura didn’t have an answer for him but for the quick kiss she pressed to the top of his head. Joe was more of a challenge, squirming out of reach and asking why he couldn’t just wear his usual clothes. A solemn, stern word from his father was enough to make him stop moving for long enough to finish straightening his jacket.  
  
Laura slid her hand into her husband’s, squeezing it gently. The squeeze in return was the strength she would need to make it through this day, or so she hoped. He knew, of course, all of the things she was feeling. When it all boiled over and she couldn’t put the strong face on anymore and when she would reach for her phone to text Kate about something that Joe had done or how Frank and Nancy surely would make the perfect couple when they got older and realized she no longer could reach her best friend, Fenton was there. He was there for the tears, to hold her, to kiss away the trails of saltwater leading down her cheeks. She would survive this with him.  
  
And though it went by in a blur, all Laura would remember for the years to come was the bent over form of her friend, who didn’t even look up with his little strawberry blonde girl reached out to take his hand and walk him up to say one last goodbye to his wife, her mother, their friend.


	2. Frank

Frank had known something was wrong from the moment his mother let her phone slip out of her hand and fall to the floor, staring off into the space ahead of her as though there was some answer there that she desperately needed. Joe had continued to eat his grilled cheese sandwich at the worn oak table they both sat up, but Frank held his in mid-air, watching as his father rushed to his mother’s side. Something was very wrong.

He and his brother had been sent to bed early that night.

It wasn’t until the next morning that their father told them what had happened. Sitting at the breakfast table, Fenton Hardy explained that Nancy’s mother had passed away and that this would be a difficult time, but things would get easier eventually. “It’s okay to feel whatever you need to,” Frank’s father said and Frank just stared at him with big eyes. He had known something was wrong, but this didn’t make sense. Someone that important couldn’t be gone – not just like that.

It took a moment for him to process who else this would affect. “Is Nancy okay?” he asked, his voice cracking just a little as he felt the warm, salty tears finally start to form in his eyes. That was her mom – Frank couldn’t imagine what it would be like to never see his mother again.

His dad sighed across the table. “Hannah said she’s locked herself in her room and won’t talk to anyone. She’s going through a lot right now.”

Frank thought of Nancy’s bright, inquisitive eyes and wondered if the light in them had dimmed. He couldn’t bear to think of that; couldn’t bear to think that his best friend might not shine as brightly now. “Can I go see her?”

“Not right now, son. Your mother will go by later. You can go visit them with her. Don’t push Nancy though; she has a lot to sort through on her own.”

Frank nodded, though he hoped that his dad was wrong. He wished for some combination of words that he could tell Nancy to convince her that it would be alright. And maybe he hoped it would convince him too, because he was sure it would ever be alright again.

He went with his mother later, who went to speak to Nancy’s father and left him standing in the foyer of the beautiful, warmly-colored house. Nancy had always told him her mother had been the one to pick the colors, saying it made the house feel like it was summertime even in the middle of winter. Without Mrs. Drew’s warm presence, the colors seemed a little grayer and the house felt a little colder.

The door to Nancy’s room was shut. Normally, it wouldn’t bother him to go straight up and knock, but Frank didn’t know what he would find behind that door. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. So slowly and hesitantly, he took a few steps to the door and rapped on the door lightly. To his surprise, it wasn’t locked or latched, as the door creaked open. Frank peered into the room.

The strawberry blonde girl was hunched over her desk and he could see the way her shoulders shook like she might fall apart any second. Strewn across her floor were papers and pieces of jewelry that Frank recognized as her mother’s. The normally neat room looked like a disaster zone. Frank realized at that moment that this was not the way Nancy would want him to see her, so in a moment he might come to regret, he took a few steps back quietly, slowly pulling the door shut.

That was the last time he saw Nancy until the funeral. And there, in that place filled with solemn people, he felt so far away from her, like there was no way he would ever be able to reach that sad little girl, his best friend, and make her smile again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to those of you who have read this, and stay tuned for more perspectives.


End file.
